Day in the Life:Josh

Love the breakfast sandwiches here and knocking two of them down with iced coffee.  I am ready for the day!

Psychology + Neuroscience

We started the course like I’d expect, talking about Psychology, disorders, and diagnosing, then we dissected a sheep's brain to see the anatomy of the brain and identify relevant parts. But today, we leveled up even further and worked with a Wellesley Professor in her lab to investigate how different chemical reactions impact the brain. So, we read a patient description that identified they were suffering from early Alzheimer's Disease. We then tested four different compounds used in medications and measured the impact of each.

Psychology + Neuroscience

Lisa Feldman Barrett, a professor at Northeastern, came and spoke, and then just answered questions for an hour—anything we wanted to know about the field.  Our instructor told us that Dr. Barrett is one of the most distinguished people in the field, and she has one of the most-watched TED Talks worldwide.  She was really inspiring and smart.

I had lunch with a girl from my concentration at the Botanical Garden here on campus. She’s from Mumbai but goes to school in England. She’s at EXPLO partially to figure out if she should go to college in England or the U.S. She says they’re really different, and you have to specialize early in England. That’s why she’s trying to figure out if neuroscience is what she wants to study in college.  

Psychology + Neuroscience

This afternoon, we pooled our data and determined which medication we would prescribe to patients, each with different profiles and diagnoses. We identified symptoms, determined which parts of the brain had been affected, measured chemical medication effects, and delivered diagnoses and treatments. It really feels like I could do this kind of work. Now, I’m starting to think I might like neuro even more than the psych part.

I went to a college app Q&A in the student lounge, which was super helpful. I used to be nervous about the whole college application process, but this experience is making me more excited to apply this fall. Now I have to check out what kind of neuroscience departments schools have since I’m thinking more and more that's what I want to do.

During dinner my friends and I were talking about how if EXPLO were a year-round boarding school, we’d love to go. We love that there are people from all over here.  The class work here is really challenging, but it’s so much more interesting than what we do in school.  Here, you don’t really want class to end, you want to keep working on the labs and projects with other people who also are excited about what they are doing.  I’m hoping this is what college is going to be like.

I got both of my top choices for weekend trips; MJ the Musical and River Kayaking!

Gotta call mom and thank her for making me pack a costume–it's Halloween in July tonight.  I’m surprised how many people dressed up tonight.  We danced, hung out on the quad, went to the fire pit and made s’mores.  Life here is so easy.

We all looked so funny sitting in our hall for check-in dressed in costumes. We kept responding to our RA, Raoul, in our character’s voices. He was laughing so hard, we weren’t sure she would be able to finish check in.  Parker, Max, and Kofi made mac n’ cheese for the whole hall and we all talked about what we were doing after EXPLO.  We all decided we needed to stay in touch and visit each other.  Seriously, there’s no better living group than Freeman 4.